# A weekend in Berkeley and Oakland with kids

Written 2026-09-21 by Play Day. Two days in Berkeley and Oakland with kids: Tilden, a famous concrete slide and tacos on Fourth Street, then Lake Merritt, the zoo, the harbor and six hotels.

After the San Francisco weekend with the kids, head east. Berkeley has a whole hillside of regional park with a farm, a carousel and a steam train tucked into it, plus playgrounds that have been the default toddler morning for generations. Oakland has a lake with a storybook park on its shore, a zoo up in the hills and a real working harbor.

Each city gets its own day here. Berkeley is the hills and the parks, and Oakland is the lake, the zoo and the water. They’re only 20 minutes apart by car and BART connects the two downtowns, but the hills and the zoo aren’t on BART, so this plan drives.

A stroller works for most of it (we’ll flag the exceptions as they come up).

## Where to stay

Stay in Oakland and day two is at your door, with the zoo and the hills in easy reach. Stay in Berkeley and it’s the parks and the slide instead. Either way, two nights in one spot is the calm move (the drive between the cities is 20 minutes in either direction).

Arriving by ferry or BART? Jack London Square is your easy base. The Berkeley Marina and the hills are the quieter picks.

- [Waterfront Hotel, JdV by Hyatt](https://ourplayday.com/places/waterfront-hotel-oakland): A nautical-themed boutique hotel on Jack London Square, with the ferry to San Francisco across the street and views of boats docking (kids love this). Confirmed on the listing: cribs available, suite with separate bedroom, pool.
- [Homewood Suites by Hilton Oakland-Waterfront](https://ourplayday.com/places/homewood-suites-by-hilton-oakland-waterfront-oakland): All suites, every one with a full kitchen, right on the waterfront. Early risers get breakfast without a restaurant negotiation. Confirmed on the listing: cribs available, suite with separate bedroom, pool, free breakfast.
- [Oakland Marriott City Center](https://ourplayday.com/places/oakland-marriott-city-center-oakland): Downtown Oakland’s big full-service hotel. Direct BART access means you can go car-free for a stretch, and the suites fit a travel crib without any gymnastics. Confirmed on the listing: cribs available, suite with separate bedroom, pool.
- [Claremont Resort & Club](https://ourplayday.com/places/claremont-resort-club-berkeley): The East Bay’s resort splurge, up in the Berkeley Hills, with several pools, tennis, a kids’ club and seasonal family programming. A staycation that feels like you’ve left the state. Confirmed on the listing: cribs available, suite with separate bedroom, pool.
- [DoubleTree by Hilton Berkeley Marina](https://ourplayday.com/places/doubletree-by-hilton-berkeley-marina-berkeley): Right on the Marina, with kite-flying lawns and the Bay Trail out the door. It’s the only Berkeley hotel with an indoor pool, so swim time doesn’t hinge on the fog. Confirmed on the listing: cribs available, pool.
- [Courtyard by Marriott Oakland Airport](https://ourplayday.com/places/courtyard-by-marriott-oakland-airport-oakland): The practical pick for an early flight, with sound-insulated rooms near the runways and a shuttle. It’s also on the zoo end of the East Bay. Confirmed on the listing: cribs available, pool.

## At a glance

- Walking: 1 to 3 miles a day, mostly flat around the lake and the harbor. Tilden and the zoo are both hillside, and both are easy with a carrier.
- Ages: Stroller age and up. Day one has a slide for the big kids, a fenced corner for the toddlers and a science museum on the hill. Day two has the lake and the zoo.
- Season: Any time of year. Summer mornings in the hills are cool and the harbor gets windy, and autumn usually gives you the clearest views.

## Getting around

Honestly, a car is the easy answer here. Tilden, Codornices Park and the zoo are each up a hill, and you’re hitting all three. Coming from San Francisco means the Bay Bridge, which is the one part of the trip you really want to time around traffic.

Want to leave the car at the hotel for a stretch? BART links downtown Berkeley with downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt. And the ferry to San Francisco leaves from Jack London Square. It’s easily the nicest way home after day two.

## Day 1: Berkeley: the hills, the slide and dinner on Fourth Street

Start at the top and work your way down. Tilden Regional Park gets the morning (the farm and the carousel are just a few minutes apart), then it’s downtown for lunch, Codornices Park for the afternoon and the science museum on the hill for the view. Dinner is on Fourth Street, on the way back to the hotel.

### Morning: [Little Farm at Tilden Regional Park](https://ourplayday.com/places/little-farm-at-tilden-regional-park-berkeley) (give it about an hour)

Cows, goats and chickens, a short walk from the parking lot on Canon Drive. Kids get to see and hear all of it up close. Feeding the animals isn’t allowed anymore (a bummer, we know), but there’s still plenty to watch.

- Entry: Free
- Wheelchair accessible: Yes
- Good for ages: All ages

### Late morning: [Tilden Merry-Go-Round](https://ourplayday.com/places/tilden-merry-go-round-berkeley) (give it about 30 minutes)

A restored carousel full of hand-carved animals. The snack stand, restroom and parking are all right there, so this is an easy stop and not an expedition. Your smallest will spend the entire ride deciding which animal to pick.

Tip: There’s a mini steam train that loops along the ridge nearby, and any kid still riding the carousel in their head will want it next. It only runs on certain days, so check the listing first.

- Wheelchair accessible: Yes
- Good for ages: All ages

Also: [Redwood Valley Railway](https://ourplayday.com/places/redwood-valley-railway-berkeley).

### Lunch: [Jupiter](https://ourplayday.com/places/jupiter-berkeley) (give it about an hour and a half)

Wood-fired pizza on a big two-level garden patio that happily forgives kid volume, with all the bustle of downtown Berkeley around you. The grown-ups get good beer, and the kids get room to be kids.

- Takes reservations: Yes
- Changing table: Yes
- High chairs: Yes
- Kids' menu: Yes

### Afternoon: [Codornices Park](https://ourplayday.com/places/codornices-park-berkeley) (give it about an hour and a half)

Home of the famous 40-foot concrete slide, the one big kids ride down on a piece of cardboard. There’s also a creek, a fenced area for toddlers, and the Berkeley Rose Garden through the pedestrian tunnel across Euclid. It’s a Berkeley childhood rite of passage, and the only price of admission is cardboard.

- Entry: Free
- Restrooms: Yes
- Changing table: Yes
- Good for ages: Ages 5 and up

Also: [Berkeley Rose Garden Playground](https://ourplayday.com/places/berkeley-rose-garden-playground).

### Late afternoon: [Lawrence Hall of Science](https://ourplayday.com/places/lawrence-hall-of-science-berkeley) (give it about an hour and a half)

Design Quest is all about building and testing things, there’s an Animal Discovery Room, and the terrace has one of the best bay views around. Inside, it’s a museum for the kid who wants to make stuff. Outside, the terrace is your reward.

Tip: It isn’t open every day of the week, so check the listing before you drive all the way up the hill.

- Entry: Paid
- Wheelchair accessible: Yes
- Restrooms: Yes
- Changing table: Yes
- Good for ages: Ages 5 and up

### Dinner: [Tacubaya](https://ourplayday.com/places/tacubaya-berkeley) (give it about an hour and a half)

A festive Fourth Street taqueria where the decor soaks up kid noise and the outdoor tables let the rest of it drift off. Bonus: there are trains to watch on the tracks next door. Pretty much the perfect reset after a day with that many hills in it.

- Takes reservations: Yes
- Changing table: Yes
- High chairs: Yes
- Kids' menu: Yes

Evening: Got energy left? Fourth Street has a short stretch of shops for a stroll after dinner, and Oakland is only 20 minutes away by car.

## Day 2: Oakland: the lake, the zoo and the harbor

Oakland is pretty spread out, so think of today in three parts. The lake and its storybook park in the morning, lunch in Uptown, then the zoo up in the hills for the afternoon, with the harbor and the waterfront to close out the day.

### Morning: [Children’s Fairyland](https://ourplayday.com/places/children-s-fairyland-oakland) (give it about two hours)

A storybook park right on the edge of Lake Merritt, built at kid scale for little kids. Give it the whole morning and let your youngest set the pace (they will anyway).

- Entry: Paid
- Restrooms: Yes
- Changing table: Yes
- Good for ages: All ages
- Nearest food on this plan: Drake's Dealership, 0.4 mi

### Late morning: [Lake Merritt](https://ourplayday.com/places/lake-merritt) (give it about 45 minutes)

A lake smack in the middle of the city, with gardens kids can touch and wander through. The path around it is totally flat, so this is the stroller walk of the weekend, and you’ve got water to look at the whole way.

- Restrooms: Yes

### Lunch: [Drake’s Dealership](https://ourplayday.com/places/drake-s-dealership-oakland) (give it about an hour and a half)

An old auto dealership turned into a sprawling open-air beer garden in Uptown. Think wood-fired pizza, communal tables and so much space that a loud kid just disappears into the general roar. Go during the day or early evening, when it’s family time.

- Takes reservations: Yes
- Changing table: Yes
- High chairs: Yes
- Kids' menu: No

### Afternoon: [Oakland Zoo](https://ourplayday.com/places/oakland-zoo-oakland) (give it about two and a half hours)

A hillside zoo where the gondola up to the California Trail comes with admission, and for a small kid the ride is honestly half the outing. It’s the furthest stop from everything else on this trip, so it gets the afternoon all to itself.

Tip: General admission has to be booked ahead, so check the listing before you drive out.

- Entry: Paid
- Takes reservations: Yes
- Wheelchair accessible: Yes
- Good for ages: All ages

### Late afternoon: [Middle Harbor Shoreline Park](https://ourplayday.com/places/middle-harbor-shoreline-park-oakland) (give it about an hour)

Wide open paths for bikes and scooters, with giant container cranes right across the water. Kids who love big machines will just stand there and stare. And those paths? That’s where your scooter kid burns off whatever’s left in the tank.

- Wheelchair accessible: Yes
- Restrooms: Yes
- Changing table: Yes
- Good for ages: All ages

### Dinner: [Jack London Square](https://ourplayday.com/places/jack-london-square-oakland) (give it about an hour and a half)

Boats to watch, an arcade, a movie theater and outdoor patios to eat on. You can show up with zero plan here. It’s also where the ferry to San Francisco leaves from, so your ride home is right there too.

- Good for ages: All ages

Evening: The ferry back to San Francisco leaves right from the square, and BART is a short walk from downtown Oakland.

## If it rains

Rainy day? Move Lawrence Hall of Science to the morning and let it anchor everything. Over in Oakland, Chabot Space & Science Center has planetarium shows and hands-on exhibits up in the hills, Bay Play in West Oakland is an indoor playground with climbing walls and a ninja course, and the Junior Center of Art & Science packs art spaces, a library, a play space and animals into one building. In Berkeley, the kids’ section of the central library is the go-to when the weather turns.

## With a toddler

Berkeley is really good to toddlers. Virginia-McGee Totland and Becky Temko Tot Park are both fully fenced and built just for them, and Codornices has its own fenced toddler area right next to the big slide. In Oakland, stick to Fairyland and the lake path, and give the zoo an hour instead of the whole afternoon.

## With big kids

Adventure Playground on the Berkeley Marina is a staff-supervised junkyard where kids get real hammers and saws and build forts out of scrap lumber (yes, really). Add Indian Rock for climbing and scrambling, and the Cal campus, great for scooting the paths and wading in the creek. And the Oakland Zoo? It can have the whole day.

## What to skip

Don’t try to do the Tilden hills and the Oakland Zoo on the same day. They’re at opposite ends of the East Bay, and that’s exactly why each one gets its own day. Also skip crossing the bridge at rush hour with a hungry kid in the back (nobody wins). Time the drive from San Francisco for midday, or just take the ferry.

## Questions

### Is Berkeley or Oakland better for kids?

Honestly, it depends on your kid. Berkeley has the hills, the regional park with a farm and a carousel, and fully fenced toddler playgrounds. Oakland has a lake with a storybook park, a hillside zoo and the harbor. That’s why this plan gives each one a day.

### How do you get from San Francisco to Berkeley and Oakland with kids?

Drive across the Bay Bridge, take BART from the city to downtown Oakland or Berkeley, or hop the ferry from San Francisco to Jack London Square in Oakland. The hills and the zoo aren’t on BART, though, so a car makes this weekend a lot easier.

### What is there to do in Berkeley with kids?

The farm and the carousel at Tilden Regional Park, a 40-foot concrete slide at Codornices Park, a science museum in the hills with a view of the bay, and playgrounds, including two that are fully fenced for toddlers.

### What is there to do in Oakland with kids?

A storybook park and a path around Lake Merritt, the Oakland Zoo and its gondola, the harbor and Jack London Square, plus Chabot Space & Science Center when it’s wet out.

### Where should families stay in the East Bay?

Jack London Square if you want the ferry and the waterfront, downtown Oakland for BART, or the Berkeley Hills or the Berkeley Marina to be near the parks. Six places set up for families are under Where to stay.

## About this plan

The prose carries no prices, opening hours or ticket rules, because those change. Each place named links to its Play Day listing, which carries the kid facts (high chairs, changing tables, kids' menus, wheelchair access) with the source and month of each.

Page: https://ourplayday.com/guides/united-states/california/berkeley-and-oakland/a-weekend-in-berkeley-and-oakland